The saddest story you are likely to be reading right now is about the Takumi K-70 currently boxed in Sydney with a friend of mine while I try to get this European tour finished and return to Oz. One day I WILL get back to my rig, you will agree my images in my posts are pathetic representations of the rig I lived with for a while.
By-the-by, Rob Koch was this talent I came across one day in Tokyo and if the Takumi is his first effort coming to market then we can expect some incredible stuff in the future. His grasp of electrical circuits floored me and he seems perpetually mind-bending this and that board or electron flow mentally, even while sharing sushi with him. I promised Rob I'd buy the scrolling mess of wires I heard on his living room floor one day, his "home project" (I mean, Home Project!? My home project is putting together a Tamiya remote control car!!, Rob builds amps. all over his living room floor) and getting the call that Production version Takumi no.1 was available I snapped it up, Rob having engraved mine with a small Australiana name, a name we jokingly bandied about while Rob was trying to name the amp. The amplifier was never going to be named after Australia's northern animals, ever, I was just joking. But he engraved that name on No. 1 for me, what a guy.
I must get back to Rob about building me No. 4. the number 4 in spoken Japanese is 'four' and 'death', so he is not aiming to build a No. 4 in the current production line. It would never sell in Japan, but I'd take it.
And to the point in all of this, if Rob ever gets his pre-amp. ideas out into our land of the sonic maniacs then we are in for a new pinnacle system, so I would only recommend that the Takumi would be your preference, in lieu of a Robert Koda pre-amp. maybe coming together (one day). One day.
I see maybe you Folk swap gear in and out a lot, however, and waiting for a product-line path may not be suitable to your frequency of 'upgrades'. But a Robert Koda pre to a Robert Koda power, that's going to be special.
Best of luck anyway, your outfit looks spectacular.
